Belarus

Belarus—Faces of Resistance preserves the memory of the Belarusian protests of 2020 by documenting a series of transnational collaborative events which took place on Chicago’s South Side in 2019–2023. The book contains material from roundtables, exhibits, interviews, seminars, and commentaries, dedicated to the situation in Belarus before, during, and after the protests which errupted in response to the contested presidential elections in August, 2020. This collection should help the international community understand the 2020 Belarusian protests: their history, context, dynamics, global interconnectedness, as well as their aftermath and impact. The volume assembles a range of perspectives coming from the participants on the ground, expert observers, artists, cultural critics, students, politicians, and scholars of the region, reflecting on the events in a variety of forms and media.

The cover image by Violetta Savchits. 

The woman in red  is Vera Tsvikievich (Вера Цвикевич), a former political prisoner. She holds Russian citizenship. She was sentenced to one year in a penal colony on the basis of a photograph taken during protests and published in the Belarusian Komsomolskaya Pravda. Vera completed her sentence and was released on October 26, 2022. After her release, she was immediately taken to the Russian border, as she was banned from entering Belarus for five years. Before her deportation, she was not even allowed to collect her belongings. She was also included in the "List of Individuals Involved in Extremist Activities." The judge in Vera's case who willingly served the dictatorship is Olga Malashenko (Ольга Малашенко).